By Ed Muniz-Photos by Lauren Gray
** Additional Photos are Available for Purchase at https://justallsports.zenfolio.com/p942813198 **
ORLAND PARK— Playoff football, The Second Season! Regardless of where you finished in the standings, the one and done possibilities are a main reason playoff games are worth giving your all as a player and worth watching as a fan because anything can happen.
The favorite wins a lot of the time but upsets are always the possibility and do happen. It’s why the game is played and why that chance at a Championship often brings out the best a player has, making for exciting endings.
The Wednesday Night Football League reached its semi-finals round of competition on Octorber 14. At each of the four levels, Super Lightweight, Lightweight, Junior Varsity and Varsity, four teams were vying for a shot at a championship game.
Hosting games at the Junior Varsity and Varsity levels were the Orland Park Pioneers. Both Pioneer teams were among the final 16-teams that earned spots in the league playoffs.
Back to Back games were on tap at Schussler Park.
Opening the evening play would be the JV Pioneers headed by Coach AL Krokos. They would host the Frankfort Falcons.
This game was thought to be about two evenly matched team where the winner could possibly be decided by a mistake by the other. It turned out to be about one team trying to catch up and the mistakes it committed that eventually saw the Pioneers maintain a 6-0 lead for the win, advancing to the Championship game.
The Pioneers took their opening series and marched 70-yards on the 13-play drive that used up nearly 12 minutes prior to the 2-yard run up the middle by Quarterback’ Jason Erwin for the games only score.
Erwin was at his best all game on both defense and offense. His elusiveness and speed kept the Falcons chasing him all game. Whether running the ball or rolling out under strong pursuit, he managed to string out a play and then toss for a completion to an open man.
Defensively, his ability to read a play along with his catch-up speed also paid off for the Pioneers when he finished off a tackle, helping to keep the Pioneers ahead and the Falcons scoreless.
Surprisingly, only one score was put on the board and that came on the games opening drive. A short touchdown run by Erwin would turn out to be it, as team defenses were the stars for both the Pioneers and Falcons.
The first half after the intial tally by the Pioneers, became a series of back and forth punts.
For the Pioneers, excellent tackling by Thomas Sutter, Erwin, Bradley Patterson, Adam Krokos, Scott Gumienny and Gunner McCarthy kept the Falcns from scoring and forced a punt and a turnover on downs in the first 25-minute half.
Offensively, the Pioneers took the opening possession and made the most of it.
Erwin connected with Krokos right away for 8-yards. That was followed by 11-yards by Erwin, a completion to Kvelland for 31-yards followed by a couple more runs by Erwin and Patterson and one more completion to Michael Ordman. The initial first few plays had the Falcons reeling, unable to slow the Pioneers march down field.
A few more runs by Erwin, Patterson and Ordman soon saw the Pioneers just a couple yards from the Falcons endzone. From there, Erwin took a snap and charge up the middle for the touchdown and a 6-0 lead.
Defenses by both teams followed the score. Each became more aggressive with one thought in mind, to prevent another score! They did just that forcing each offense to punt.
One other big play by the Pioneers occured with little time left in the first half. An Erwin to Krokos pass went for 27-yards but failed with the limited time to produce another scoring chance before time expired.
Headed to halftime, The Pioneers held a 6-0 advantage with thoughts of maintaining the lead while the Falcons looked to respond and even the game or possibly take the lead.
Opening the second half, the Falcons went to the air immediately picking up a nice chunk on the pass. They quickly flipped their field position in two plays from their own 30 to now at the Pioneers 33. They were also aided by a penalty. Things were looking pretty good until two consecutive plays halted their drive.
First they fumbed the snap but maintaine possession, then an intended pass was snatched by Pioneers linebacker’ Adam Krokos.
The Pioneers would proceed to grab three consecutive interceptions as their ball-hawking pass defense was stellar, defending every pass thrown against them.
“We were just back on fourth and long and he just threw it up,” said Adam. “I tried to bat it down but I caught it. I’m reacting to the ball with a hand back on the receiver, keeping track on where he is at. Our team did great especially defense with three interceptions. I’m excited for the Championship game too, its been a long time since we were in it.”
After the Interception, the Pioneers lost the opportunity to extend their lead after two plays when they too heaved a pass that found the arms of a Falcon defender.
On the following Falcons possession, once again the Pioneers defense came away with another turnover. A third down pass by the Falcons was again intercepted, this time Caden Kolodziej would haul in the errant pass and give the Pioneers offense more opportunities to extend their lead.
“I think our line got in there quick and he had no time, so he just threw it up on my Interception,” said Caden. “I was guarding a guy my coach told me to cover all the time and he tried to get the pass to him but he threw it to the right too much, so I saw it and caught it, I almost dropped it but I was able to hold on to it. I tried getting space after I caught it and made a run for it. I was able enough to pick up some yards to help our offense. Our defense was amazing. Everyone of them out there did a great job. Our defensive line and linebacker did great. None of this could have happened without how they played today.”
The Pioneers were forced to punt just three plays later as the Falcons knew they couldn’t afford to go down another score with time nearing the end of the game. Unfortunately for them two things occured again on their next offensive tries.
First, the Pioneers defense was working harder as the game continued to preserve the lead and second, they couldn’t complete a pass against the Poneers pass coverage without it becoming a turnover.
Just three plays later, the Pioneers for the third time in a row picked off another Falcon pass. Timing it perfectly, Connor Kvelland dove right in front of the Falcons receiver and intercepted the pass. Three consecutive interceptions by the Pioneers defense.
“We knew that they were gonna try to get the ball to number 31 on a lot of passes and we worked on it in practice. If he was wide with no one else out there, he’d run a slant,” said Connor. “I creeped over there as he tried it and I got the interception, timed it perfect, stepping in front of him as the ball arrived. All my teammates warned me about the slant and I was like, “I got it.” I thought I did good in this game with a lot of good hits and that interception for sure. We came up big when we needed it.”
On the very next play, the Falcons defense showed they too can read the pass with theirown intercepted of the Pioneers pass.
The remaining last eight minutes of the game was a standoff of defenses. The Pioneers allowed some yards as the Falcons desperately tried to find the evening score but strong tackling by Nick Pomonis, Patterson, McCarthy, Dominic Lach and Scott Gumienny secured the 6-0 semi-final victory, propelling the Pioneers to the JV Championship game next Wednesday
Other Pioneers that gave their all in this winwhether by play of support included Colton Gutkowski, Keith Piekarz, Luke Krokos, Thomas Sutter, Cooper Elslager, Will Poore, Emmett Kane, Ryan Lukas, Ameen Musa, Jase Enstrom, Patrick O’Boye, Carter Erwin, Michael O’Connor, Lucca Morandi, Noah Cordoba, Christopher Medina, Andrew Richardson, Anthoy LaPapa, Christian Paulson, Laith Hammami, Dominic Gabriele, George Petraitis, Collin Valan, Vincent Shervino, Jimmy Elsberg, MIchela Galivan, Zechariah Torgerson, Jude Morrar and Rayder Slabenak.
